As the dust settles...

Apologies for the absence of posts recently, again life has taken me away from my beloved blog. As the dust settles on the 2010 season for the Broncos, it's as good a time as ever to do a bit of a post-mortem on the year and look at the good and the bad.

Player of the Year

The best player of the season was clearly Sam Thaiday. Recently named the best Second Row player in the NRL, his barn-storming runs and stiff defence were his trademarks this season. No other player showed more commitment to the cause than Sam - it's safe to say that without him we wouldn't have been able to blow our shot at the finals because we would have been down near the Cowboys on the table. Brisbane and Queensland fans are indebted to him for his heroics this season.

The 'Pack your shit because you are fired' Award

The worst player of the season for mine was Peter Wallace. I know I'm raising a few eyebrows by saying this but this was the season that Wallace was meant to show us that he can steer the ship without Locky. He is still one of the best defensive halfbacks in the game, dealing out brutal tackles for a bloke his size, but his kicking game and passing game left much to be desired this season. It was only in 2008 that he was the NSW Halfback before his brutal ball-tear and since then he hasn't been the same.

Rookie of the Year

Easily this one goes to Matt Gillett. The Best A Man Can Get showed experience beyond his years by being versatile enough to play multiple positions and excel at them. His best position is clearly Second Row and just the raw effort this kid puts in is phenomenal. Worthy winner of the Dally M Rookie of the Year.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's look forward to next season. I'm still a little annoyed at the way we ended the season and missed the finals for the first time in almost two decades but hey, it had to happen eventually. Our line-up will look something like this:

1. Josh Hoffman
2. Jharal Yow Yeh
3. Greg Inglis
4. Justin Hodges (pending Achilles situation, otherwise we'd be looking at someone like Beale)
5. Denan Kemp
6. Darren Lockyer
7. Peter Wallace
8. Ben Hannant
9. Andrew McCullough
10. Nick Kenny
11. Matt Gillett
12. Sam Thaiday
13. Corey Parker

14. Scott Anderson
15. Shane Tronc
16. Ben Te'o
17. Ben Hunt/Corey Norman

If that isn't one the best forward packs in the NRL then I don't know what is. The great news for us are the depth that we have outside of the 17 players above - Josh McGuire, Dale Copley and Lagi Setu to name a few (although I wouldn't be surprised if Setu gets transferred).

We could sit here and rant that Henjak is a gronk and has no clue but that doesn't do us much good. The worst season to start a Broncos blog has ended and while it didn't match our normally high standards, it did give us plenty to write about. Now that the season is winding down the blog will be slowing down as well (not that it hasn't been slow lately, damn you real life), we'll still be reporting out on the Four Nations at the end of the year and any other Broncos news that comes to hand.

Until next season, you stay classy Red Hill Ranters!